Israel has continued to wage fierce attacks across Lebanon, including near the capital, Beirut, killing nine people and injuring others, even as US-mediated talks between Israeli and Lebanese officials progress in Washington.
The Israeli attacks on Wednesday struck at least 10 vehicles, in one case directly targeting an ambulance, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health, and in another occurring just several kilometres south of Beirut, the country’s state media reported.
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Among the victims of the Israeli strikes were two medics in the municipality of Chehour and another six people near the coastal city of Tyre, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.
A Lebanese soldier was also killed while travelling on a road in the south, said the Lebanese army.
The attack in the Khaldeh area on the southern outskirts of Beirut injured two people, according to Lebanese security sources quoted by the Reuters news agency.
“What we’ve been seeing over the past hours has been an escalation,” said Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem from Beirut. “This is taking us back to square one.”
Also reporting from the Lebanese capital, Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr said the Israeli strike near Beirut was fueling concern that “there is no front line in this ongoing conflict.”
“Lebanon has been insisting that Israel abide by a full ceasefire, something the Israeli government is refusing to accept,” said Khodr.
Trump ‘perturbed’ by Netanyahu’s escalation
The attacks come several days after United States President Donald Trump said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had committed to cancel any planned attacks on Beirut, though the Israeli leader’s office separately said Israel still reserved the right to strike Beirut if Hezbollah attacks continued.
Speaking to the New York Post’s “Pod Force One” podcast on Wednesday, Trump acknowledged a recent tense exchange with Netanyahu and said he was “a little bit perturbed at his constantly fighting with Lebanon”.
Netanyahu, for his part, insisted that Israel had to “disarm Hezbollah” and “demilitarise Lebanon” in order to make peace with its neighbour.
While Israel and Lebanon agreed to a nominal “ceasefire” in mid-April, attacks by Israel and Hezbollah have continued.
Both sides accuse each other of violating the ceasefire and justify their attacks by pointing to the other’s alleged breaches, with Israel breaking the truce on a near-daily basis.
The conflict has become a significant point of contention in Washington’s own negotiations with Iran, which insists a full ceasefire in Lebanon must be part of any deal.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned on Wednesday against any future Israeli attack on Beirut, saying it would “have grave consequences and lead to a full resumption of war”.
“At the moment when Israel threatened to attack the suburbs of Beirut, we adopted a decisive stance and the Iranian armed forces were put on full alert for a counterattack,” Araghchi said in an interview with Lebanese news outlet Al Mayadeen.
Hezbollah fires rocket salvo at northern Israel
Hezbollah also carried out strikes against Israel on Wednesday, including firing rockets at soldiers in northern Israel, the group said.
The Israeli military said it downed a “hostile aircraft” and two projectiles that crossed into Israeli territory from Lebanon. Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Leiter said the interception prevented “what could have been a deadly attack on civilians, including children”.
Meanwhile, Israeli and Lebanese negotiators were set to convene in Washington for a second day of direct talks, which are now in their fourth round.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told a congressional panel he was hopeful that the two sides would issue a joint statement and an action plan today, “on the track for security” in Lebanon, “independent from Hezbollah”.
Hashem, citing well-informed political sources in Beirut, said the next 24 hours would be “very crucial”, with mediation efforts also taking place in Qatar.
“There are attempts to arrive at a comprehensive ceasefire in Lebanon, which everyone here in Lebanon would love to see in order to end their plight,” said Hashem.
Since Israel escalated its attacks on Lebanon on March 2, days after the US-Israel war on Iran began, a total of 3,516 people have been killed and 10,674 wounded in Lebanon, according to the country’s Health Ministry.
Invading Israeli forces have also pushed north of the Litani River in Lebanon, while forcibly displacing more than one million people from their homes.
